Let It Snow
by MadFox32
Summary: Athena gets stuck in Apollo's apartment because of all the snow (Inspired by Ohio and its silly polar vortexes), and stumbles upon his "journal", full of Apollo's thoughts on a few past experiences. Warning: Justicykes fluff :3


Athena gets stuck in Apollo's apartment because of all the snow (Inspired by Ohio and its silly polar vortexes), and stumbles upon his "journal". Apollo sadness and Justicykes fluff :3

I'm doing a (really long) one-shot guys. And it's romantic. This feels unnatural. Tell me if I'm actually ok at this or if I should avoid romance at all costs XD

Oh, and I still don't own Capcom. Otherwise Klavier wouldn't have been... mocked in case 3 of AA5- he would be sitting at the prosecutor's bench, as he should be. XP

And there are about 4 million spoilers. So yep. Enjoy.

"Hey Boss! I finally figured this case out!"

Athena had been shifting through piles of papers for hours now- even Apollo (who on a normal day had more coffee in his veins than actual blood) had given up for the night and headed home to his apartment so he could get some sleep. Phoenix stared at her groggily.

"The gun wasn't actually shot at point-blank range! Someone must have shot his wound again in order to leave the burn marks! That's how a .35 caliber bullet managed to go all the way through him! And it shows that he could've been shot through the window after all!"

"Wow, Athena, that's amazing. Me or Apollo would've probably just bluffed through that at the trial tomorrow." The tired Phoenix grinned sheepishly, rubbing his neck.

"Thanks, Boss!" She flashed a peace sign. Suddenly, her grin disappeared and she began flicking her earring. "Where's Apollo?"

"He left an hour ago. Did you not notice?" Athena shook her head.

"I need to go tell him!"

"Are you seriously planning on waking up Apollo?"

"Wake him up? Seriously, Boss, it's only..." she looked at the clock. "One in the morning." Her face drooped a bit with embarrassment. "But Apollo never can sleep right before a trial! He'll probably be able to sleep better if he heard some good news!"

"Do what you want. But if Apollo's charged with assault, I'll be defending him." Phoenix gave a tired grin.

"Then it's settled!" She grinned, giving another peace sign.

0

_Diiiiiiing... Doooooooong... Diiiiiiiiiiing... Dooooooooong..._

_Who the heck is ringing my doorbell at 1:30 in the morning?! _Apollo was writing in a journal while relaxing on the couch. Athena had been right about him not being able to sleep. He lumbered over to the door and looked outside.

"Hey, Apollo! I figured it out!" She tried not to laugh. She had never seen Apollo in anything but his red suit, although he once had a jacket over it, but she had never expected to ever see Apollo Justice in anything as casual as a red t-shirt and black shorts.

"Athena... Why are you at my house at 1:30 in the morning?!" It was a bit of a stretch to call his four-roomed condo a house, but the little home was definitely better than Athena's apartment (not that she cared).

"Oh come on, it's not like you were going to be asleep." Apollo sighed. It was completely true. They would be defending another ex-Gavinner, and Apollo wouldn't be able to stand seeing Prosecutor Gavin again if he lost- because this time, Apollo was positive that he was innocent.

"Ugh. So what was this discovery that you made?"

The two talked for about an hour, and Athena wore him out so much that he was actually considering the possibility of falling asleep, if only for a few hours. Happy that she and Apollo had pieced the rest of the case together, Athena finally decided that she was going to walk home. She promised it would take her ten minutes, at the most. This estimate was altered somewhat when she opened the door. There was snow everywhere, and so much was still falling that she couldn't see far enough to tell how deep it was. Athena hadn't seen snow since her time abroad, and judging from Apollo's expression, he had never seen so much snow in his life (which was very much possible, considering he rarely left California).

"It's a blizzard!" he gasped. "There's no way you're walking home in that!"

"There wasn't as much as a single snowflake when I got here!" Her hands cupped her face in shock. "What am I going to do?"

"Well, I'm not going to let you walk home in that." Apollo's finger dug into his forehead. "You're just going to have to stay here."

"I couldn't..." she said, uneasily.

"It's fine. It's not like I was going to sleep anyways. You can sleep in my bed-" he realized how awkward that sounded, and his face flushed-"o-or the couch. Whatever you're comfortable with." He started playing with his hair as he blushed profusely. Athena laughed, finally looking at him with a smug grin.

"Wow Apollo, I didn't realize you were that type." Apollo managed to blush even more, if that were possible.

"N-no, I'm not!" Athena laughed harder. Apollo realized that, despite a constant flood of emotions she threw at him, he had never heard her laugh this much. He thought for a second about how much he liked her laugh, quickly realizing how awkward that was. _Thank goodness I'm already blushing. _He cleared his throat. "I don't have any clothes for you..." Athena laughed harder. "But you can sleep on the couch in the other room..." Athena grinned.

"I suppose I should get some sleep. And so should you," she said more seriously.

"Good luck with that. Maybe I'll feel tired after a while, who knows." Rolling her eyes, Athena left the room. It didn't take long for the noises in the other room to fade. _How does she fall asleep that fast? And in a suit?_

Apollo picked up his journal, writing down everything Athena and him had talked about during the case. Apollo wrote down just about everything, from trial notes, to grocery lists, to how devastated he felt even now thinking about his first case, and even how he was disappointed that Klavier and him hadn't faced off in a while. He flipped through his notebook, looking for a specific entry.

_December 20, 2027_

_Ugh. I feel like an idiot. Regardless of what Athena said about thinking I'm brave, I'm not. I've forgotten what it means to be a lawyer, and what it means to be a friend. I've messed this one up so badly, I doubt anyone could really forgive me. But my bracelet didn't react when she said that... Could Athena really have meant it? Oh, right. I still had my bandages on. But she still seemed genuine enough. I don't think Athena's ever consciously lied to me... Which is why that case was so awful. Wow. Earlier today I thought she killed my best friend. What would have I done if Mr. Wright hadn't uncovered the truth? I'd probably feel angry, I guess. Angry that Wright couldn't prove me wrong, angry that one of my few remaining friends betrayed me, angry that Clay died... And angry at myself. I probably would've run away again, only to come crawling back to Mr. Wright 2 months later like I did the last time. I'm not brave at all, regardless of what Athena said. Wait... She said that again after the trial... Right? And my bracelet didn't react. So maybe she really does forgive me. Ugh. Why would she do that? She should've just punched me like I told her to. Now I can't forgive myself... Ugh. I feel like an idiot._

Apollo read this, his mood darkening. That was three weeks ago. He had charged his co-worker with murder three weeks ago, and now she trusted him enough to sleep at his house. He grabbed a pen, and began to write another entry:

_January 10, 2027 _

He groaned after remembering it was the New Year.

January 10, 202#8

_Athena's in my house right now. Asleep. There was too much snow outside for me to let her walk home. Ugh. It's the day before an important trial... And it's 3 in the morning. I'm too worried about upsetting Klavier to try and sleep. Although he hasn't said a word to me about it, which is upsetting, to say the least. I haven't seen him since Athena met him. Oh right, the Athena who's asleep in my house. This feels really awkward, to be honest. She shouldn't trust me... I accused her of killing my best friend, and I made her life absolutely miserable. But somehow, she does. What did I do to deserve a... __**friend**__ like that? It feels weird to call her a friend, really. I don't deserve to be called her friend. She's so nice, and cares about other people, and knows that the truth is the only thing worth fighting for in court. If the truth sets you free, I think Athena is conclusive evidence of that. And she's really funny, even if most of her jokes make fun of me in some way. And her laugh is adorable..._

Apollo slammed his journal closed, causing the pen to go flying out. _Am I crushing on Athena? _He couldn't be. But he knew he was. Trying not to groan loud enough to wake Athena, he decided that he needed to sleep before he had any more irrational thoughts. He looked at his bed, carefully deciding whether Athena was there, even though he was positive she was in the other room. He could NOT afford to mess up here. Positive it was safe, he climbed into bed, finally falling asleep after thirty minutes of shifting around anxiously.

0

_"Apollo? Are you there? This is Phoenix. Your trial for today was cancelled. Apollooooooooo..."_

Athena woke up to the sound of her boss's voice over the answering machine. _Did Apollo actually fall asleep? _She picked up the phone groggily. "Hey, Boss! It's Athena!" she said, her tiredness vaporizing into enthusiasm.

"_You're at Apollo's house?!_" Phoenix sounded appalled. _Is it that surprising?_

"Yeah, there was too much snow for me to walk home."

_"No kidding. They called off your trial. You know it's serious when they stop one of those."_

"Heh! Well, what do you do? Sue God for the obstruction of justice?" Phoenix laughed.

_"Well, it sure is a good thing they called off the trial. You seem like you just woke up. How did you manage to get Apollo to sleep the night before a trial, anyways? I've been trying to do that for eight years."_

"I have no idea." She could practically see Phoenix's smug smile through the phone.

_"Ha ha ha. Well, I hope you can get home safe. Oh, and I would suggest not talking to him until he's had coffee. I've learned that one the hard way."_

_"_I'll take your word on that. Well, I think I'll head over to the office eventually, so see you then!"

After hanging up, Athena wandered into the kitchen. The room was, unsurprisingly, as red as a room could be without being a painful sight. She found a cherry-colored coffee maker on a counter, and quickly figured out how it worked. She noticed a bag of Starbuck's coffee, featuring a familiar astronaut and flashing the motto, "_you will get out alive!"_ and laughed to herself. It was funny how he managed to work his way onto the weirdest product ads. However, seeing his face always filled her with good memories, so she wasn't complaining. She walked into Apollo's living room, sitting down on his couch. She jumped up quickly, realizing she had sat on something hard. _Is this a journal?_ She looked at it with an evil smile. She was reminded of a conversation she had with Mr. Wright after finding Mrs. Courte's dead body: _You can't look through a girl's diary! It might be important. Plus, it doesn't look like a diary. _She looked at the journal again. _Well, Apollo isn't a girl... _She flipped through it- there was a lot of writing. She had opened to a page dated a while back... _Oh! This was during my first case with Junie! _She read a few lines.

_I saw Klavier today. It feels like it's been a year since I went up against him in court, even though it couldn't have been more than a few months. I would never admit it, but I was actually pretty happy to see him, even if he is a gimmerous fop. I even got to go up against him in a mock... mock trial. It felt good to yell at him, especially after hearing him call me Herr Forehead all day. I miss going up against him. It's good to know that I can count on him to find the truth. He really cares more about throwing the right person in jail than the defendant. Plus, I guess I miss him as a friend._

_Who knew Apollo could be that sweet? _She thought, eagerly. She thought for a second, and wondered what he had written about her while he was taking his leave of absence. She gulped painfully, imagining all the things she might read. She turned to December 19th.

_Was it really Athena? There's no doubting that every piece of evidence points straight to her. Even my own bracelet. This can't be happening again. Why do I bother trusting people anymore? First my own parents abandoned me, then I had to deal with kids teasing me throughout school, then Kristoph killed someone, then Wright forged evidence, then Kristoph killed someone else and then forged evidence to blame it on Wright, then Klavier dropped off the face of the earth and hasn't spoken to me since the murder at the Academy, then Clay died, and now it seems like Athena killed him. Why do I bother making friends? Is all this my fault? Nobody else seems to accidentally convince everyone around them to ruin each other's lives. It probably was Athena. I can't seem to find anyone who really cares about me. Except Clay, and he's dead. And Trucy, I guess. She's the only reason I regret taking a leave. I never meant to hurt my sister. But I believed in Athena. And I think I still do, even though all of the evidence points to her. I wish all this doubt was gone! I'm supposed to believe in my clients until the bitter end... I'm no lawyer. But in court tomorrow, I refuse to leave until I have absolutely no doubt in my mind of Athena's innocence... or guilt. And if Wright's mad at me, I don't care. He has to face reality eventually. But I hope this isn't reality. Maybe Athena's innocent, and I won't need to feel betrayed again. There's hope, I guess._

Athena's eyes swelled with tears as she read this. _I never realized how lonely he was. And I never asked him about his life before I met him... It's unbelievable to think how much he must've suffered. No wonder he accused me. _She thought about how brave he was through all of that. She turned to the next page, reading about his thoughts after the trial. She was disappointed to read how upset he was with himself, and how he thought she would lie to him about forgiving him. She heard movement in the bedroom, and she quickly jumped off the couch, dashed into the kitchen, and pretended to be infatuated with the view out his window. She didn't need to pretend, she found quickly. She was captivated by all the white light, blinding her momentarily, until she could see piles of pure white snow on everything, from roofs to mailboxes to bushes.

"Wow..." Apollo's awed voice behind her made her jump. "Did I scare you?" he smirked.

"No! You just surpris-"

"Then why did Widget turn blue?" His smirk widened.

"Grr, fine. You scared me." There was a bit of an awkward pause. "Well, I made you coffee."

"I noticed."

"Mr. Wright told me that I shouldn't talk to you before you had coffee. Nice brand, by the way."

_"_He would. He's not much better without coffee. He said there was only one person he'd ever met who drank more of it than me," he said with a laugh. He suddenly laughed harder, realizing what brand of coffee she was talking about. "You would like the brand. I don't actually get it just because of Mr. Starbuck, though. Although it's a nice touch."

"Suuuure," she said as Apollo poured himself a mug.

"Wait... When did you talk to Wright?"

"Oh! He called earlier to tell you that the trial was called off due to the weather."

"I bet he enjoyed making fun of you for sleeping over here," he snickered, rolling his eyes. _It seemed like he had something against Mr. Wright in his journal... Is he still mad?_

"You ok?" he asked. She knew she couldn't lie, and it wasn't just because of his bracelet.

"Ugh. Can I have some coffee? I'm exhausted." Well, she could definitely avoid the question.

"You made it." He smiled, reaching for a mug, before placing it in front of her.

"Merci beaucoup."

"Gosh, you remind me of Klavier. Can nobody speak English?"

"Nein," she grinned. "Isn't he your prosecutor friend that we met at Themis?" She made sure to use the word friend.

"Well... yeah. I haven't seen him since then, though." She could feel a lot of discord, and Athena knew without a counseling session (or having read his dia-_journal_) that he must feel sad about not seeing the ex-rock star.

"You miss him, don't you?"

"Yeah. He was a good friend of mine."

"He's at the prosecutor's office, right? Why don't you just drop by?"

"I doubt he'd really want to see me, or he would have called or something."

"He's probably thinking the exact same thing!" she exclaimed.

"It's not that easy. I more or less ruined his life, after all."

"What did you do?"

"I put his brother and his best friend in jail, effectively destroying his family life AND his musical career."

"Were they guilty?"

"Yes."

"Then what did you do wrong?"

"I doubt Klavier would see it that way."

"It wasn't like he was avoiding you at Themis. And I didn't pick up any discord from him."

"Then why hasn't he spoken to me since then?"

"The question is why you haven't spoken to him since then."

Apollo sighed.

"Maybe you're right." He put his finger to his forehead. "I'll bet the prosecutor's office is closed, though."

"I'll bet he feels pretty lonely," she murmured.

"Lonely? He's an ex-rock star. He can go anywhere and find 300 people who have been hoping to get a glimpse of him his entire life."

"But what about his real friends? He has no band mates, or brother, and apparently no defense attorneys."

"Oh. I never really thought about that." He thought for a second, and looked outside. "I should really clear off the driveway." _Way to change the subject._

"Why? You don't even have a car!"

"Other people do." _Is he thinking about the possibility of inviting Klavier over? That would be so great!_

_"_I'd help if you want," she said, perking up.

"No, I couldn't..."

"You aren't going out alone in this!" she laughed.

"Do you even have a coat?" he asked skeptically.

"...no..." Apollo sighed.

"If you really want to help, you have to wear one of mine."

"Ok!" Apollo looked shocked. "Did you think I'd say no?" she smirked.

"Yes. Ugh. If you really want to help that much, you can."

0

And so, the two grabbed snow shovels and started to dig out Apollo's driveway, starting from the bottom. Athena looked out at the snow. The white powder glittered in the sky, floating lazily. The sun had peeked out behind the clouds, and you could see a pale blue color behind it. The sun cast golden light onto the newly fallen snow. It was beautiful.

"I didn't expect it to be so pretty out here." She hadn't spoken until they were almost finished with the job. Apollo had a remarkably small driveway.

"I haven't seen much snow before," he replied quietly. "I'd like it if it weren't so cold."

"That would take the fun out of it!" she smiled.

"How is it more fun when it's cold?" He turned towards Athena, only to be answered with a snowball to the face. "OBJECTION!"

"Overruled! Gosh Apollo, your chords of steel are going to cause an avalanche!" Apollo proceeded to try and make a snowball, clearly inexperienced. However, he still managed to hit her in the back of the neck.

"Gotcha," he grinned.

Athena ran towards him, Widget reflecting Apollo's favorite color. Suddenly, she slipped on the ice and slammed into the defense attorney, causing him to slip and fall next to her. He glared at her, only to see how beautiful her blue eyes were.

Athena looked back, watching as Apollo's eyes softened from being bitterly sarcastic to something kinder. She had never noticed his eyes, and the sincerity they reflected. Even though she was covered in snow, she felt unquestionably warm.

"E-er, sorry!" she squeaked, scrambling up. Apollo jumped to his feet, only to slip and fall over again. She reached out a hand to pull him up, and he hesitantly took it.

_This may be the most awkward moment of my entire life_. They both thought the exact same words.

They continued shoveling, as Athena asked about how she was going to get home, clearly not wanting to work in the awkward silence.

"It's only a fifteen minute walk, with the snow."

"I could always walk you home." Athena really liked this option, but she felt extremely awkward about it. However, the defense attorney quickly realized that she didn't have much of a choice, as Apollo wouldn't let her walk alone.

"I'd like that," she said softly.

0

The two left Apollo's house, quickly getting back on the topic of Klavier.

"It would probably be a good icebreaker to tell Klavier that you have decisive evidence of his old friend's innocence." Apollo had to agree. From what Ema had told him, she asked him if he wanted the case and he had refused and asked to be left alone. Maybe Apollo could give him some hope.

"That's quite the icebreaker. Hey, Klavier, I haven't seen you in months! Oh, and not every member of your band is a murderer," he laughed. "But he would definitely want to hear that at some point."

The two continued down the sidewalk. Suddenly, a man stopped them.

"Hey, Apollo! Who's the girl?"

"Hey Mr. Dupont! This is my friend from work, Athena!"

There was no doubting it. Apollo's voice struck her with a wave of discord. _He doesn't think I'm his friend._

Apollo finished his conversation with who seemed to be his neighbor, and turned back to look at her. Despite feeling devastated, she remembered she'd managed to smile in worse situations.

The two made small talk all the way back to Athena's apartment. They stopped at her door, and she decided she couldn't handle it any longer. "Apollo... Are we friends?"

"What do you mean? Of course we're friends!"

The discord was overwhelming.

"That's twice now. Apollo, both times you've said this today, there was a lot of discord..."

"What?!" Apollo looked genuinely confused. "But I do think of you as a friend." Athena didn't think he was lying, but Widget told her otherwise. Athena grabbed the device.

"Then I hope you don't mind a quick counseling session."

Apollo didn't react much as she drew a circle with her gloved hand. She wasn't too surprised to see that there was an out-of-control emotion, until she saw what it was. "Joy?!"

Apollo jumped, looking down at the ground and blushing. "Well... Maybe I wanted to be more than friends."

The discord vanished instantly, the words BYE BYE flashed, and the screen disappeared.

"Apollo... I don't know how to say this, but..."

Apollo felt his stomach drop. His head drooped in sadness and self-consciousness, leaving him totally unprepared for what would happen next. Athena wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his mouth closer to hers until they met. After Apollo recovered from the initial shock, he kissed back, only to have her break apart a few seconds later.

"I think I want to be more than friends, too."

0

After giving her a goodbye kiss and watching her leave, Apollo grinned and pulled out his phone.

_To: Trucy_

_Guess who just kissed a girl?_

His pocket buzzed as soon as he had put the phone back.

_From: Trucy_

_Guess who just won a bet with their Daddy?_

_To: Trucy_

_Was it THAT obvious?_

_From: Trucy_

_Well, I happened to find some conclusive evidence to support my theory in your diary..._

_To: Trucy_

_I'm going to kill you when I get back to the office._

He walked down the stairs grumpily, only to hear the door to the apartment fly open.

"I'm still wearing your coat."

"Do you want to walk back to the agency? I wanted to show Trucy some... conclusive evidence that didn't come from... err..." He looked at the red-haired girl nervously. _I've always loved the color red._

"Ooh, I must not have seen that part when I read your journal this morning. Sure. How long'll that take? Ten minutes?" She laughed when she saw his face, and bolted.

"You're right, if we run, we can get there in three!"

Apollo stopped in front of the Wright Anything Agency, his red face being more from exhaustion than from embarrassment at this point. Stepping into the office, it definitely was more from embarrassment. Trucy had apparently been waiting a while for this moment- she had covered the room in as many orange decorations as a 16 year old girl could put up in four minutes.

"TRUUUCYYYY!"

"Athena... will you shut up his chords of steel?" Trucy looked at her hopefully.

"Yeah. It starts to hurt your sensitive ears after a while," she grinned. But before she could 'shut him up', Apollo reached down and kissed her. Trucy squealed in delight. Breaking apart, Athena looked up at him with a grin. He placed his hands around her sides, and crouched the inch it required to look her straight in the eyes.

"Gotcha."


End file.
